Updated March 8, 2006 (first published February 9, 2004) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

Romans 6-8 deals with sanctification and holy living in the Christian life. It answers important questions such as these: If salvation is by grace without works and the believer is not under the law, does it matter how the Christian lives? Can he live as he pleases? How can the believer live a godly life and have victory over sin? Can the believer gain complete freedom from sin in this life?

This important passage of Scripture refutes many false teachings about sanctification and Christian living:

THE FALSE DOCTRINE OF ERADICATION AND PERFECTIONISM

According to this doctrine, the believer can achieve sinless perfection in this life. It is called “entire sanctification.”

Harry Ironside, who wrote many helpful Bible commentaries, encountered this teaching as a young preacher in the Salvation Army. He was taught that he could achieve entire sanctification and thereafter not be subject to the struggle against indwelling sin. Seeking this experience, he traveled away from the city and spent some time fasting and praying in a forest. On that occasion he had a powerful emotional experience and was convinced that he had “found it.” He hurried back to the Salvation Army testimony services and stood to tell his brethren that he had “it” and that they must rejoice with him in his newfound victory. After some days he fell from this emotional plateau and realized that the struggle with sin was still present. He became so discouraged and confused that he was admitted to a hospital with an emotional breakdown. There he was visited by some godly believers who gave him some literature that refuted the error of entire sanctification and taught the biblical doctrine. He was established in his understanding of the Christian life and went on to have a long and fruitful preaching and writing ministry. His testimony can be found in the book “Holiness: The False and the True.” This is available at the Way of Life web site (http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/holiness1.htm) as well as in the Fundamental Baptist CD-Rom Library.

ANSWER:

Throughout Romans 6-8 and throughout the New Testament epistles it is assumed that the believer still has the sin nature and that he has to learn to deal with this reality. There is no promise in Scripture that the flesh will be eradicated in this present life.

1. Perfectionism is refuted by Paul’s acknowledgement that the believer can sin (Rom. 6:1, 15; 8:12; 13:13-14). Paul everywhere assumes that the believer can continue in sin.

2. Perfectionism fails to distinguish between position and practice, standing and state, relationship and fellowship (Rom. 6:3-4; Eph. 4:1; 5:8). Paul carefully makes this distinction in Romans 6-8:

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:3-4).

The believer has a new standing as dead in Christ and resurrected with Christ. Therefore, because of this new standing, he is instructed to “walk in newness of life.”

This is the teaching of the book of Ephesians. Chapters 1-3 describes the believer’s standing in Christ, while chapters 4-6 describes the believer’s walk in this world. The two things are seen in the following verses:

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of that vocation wherewith ye are called” (Eph. 4:1).

“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8).

The believer has full salvation in Christ (that vocation wherewith ye are called), therefore he should walk worthy of it. The believer is light, therefore, he should walk in the light. He is a child of God, therefore he should live like one.

Thus there are two aspects of sanctification, position and practice, eternal and temporal. The believer has complete eternal sanctification in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30). He is therefore exhorted to work out that sanctification in his daily life (1 Thess. 4:3).

3. Perfectionism is refuted by Paul’s description of the struggle with the flesh (Rom. 7:18-25; Gal. 5:16-17). It has been described as having two dogs living inside of me, a black dog and a white dog, and the one I feed and the one I say “sik ‘em” to is the one that dominates.

My maternal grandmother was one of the godliest Christians I have known. I am confident that her prayers had a lot to do with my salvation after I had gone so far out into the world. She only lived a couple of years after I was saved, but I got to spend some time with her before she passed on to Glory. I had so many moral scars and struggles because of all of the foolishness of my former life. Several months after I was saved I asked her, “Granny, do you still have any struggles with sin?” I was hoping that she would tell me that those struggles had ended decades before and that it had been only smooth sailing after that, but she replied, “Oh, yes, Dave, there are still many struggles.” She was 79 or 80 years old and had walked with Christ for more than 60 years, but there were still struggles. The only time the child of God escapes the struggle with sin is when he leaves this veil of tears.

Here we must give a loud WARNING. God will judge us if we allows the flesh to dominate (Rom. 8:12-13; 1 Cor. 9:27). The child of God can live a careless life, but he will live to regret it at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Cor. 3:13-15).

4. Perfectionism is refuted by the Bible’s description of the Christian life. The Bible does not describe the Christian life as only believing in Christ’s finished work; it is not described as passive but as active--as yielding (Rom. 6:16), walking in (Gal. 5:16), putting off and on (Eph. 4:22-24), putting away (Eph. 4:31), mortifying (Col. 3:5), fleeing (2 Tim. 2:22), laying aside (Heb. 12:1; 1 Pet. 2:1).

5. Perfectionism is refuted by the doctrine of confession (1 John 1:8-10). The subject of John’s first epistle is the believer’s fellowship with Christ (1 Jn. 1:3). He teaches that fellowship is a matter of walking in the light and confessing one’s sins (1 John 1:7-10). He plainly states that the Christian life is not a matter of sinlessness. If the true Christian life is a matter of sinless sanctification, why does John instruct us to confess our sins?

Those who teach some form of sinless perfectionism often lower the standard of sin. They can claim that they are living in a state of sinless perfection because they have redefined sin down to their level. I remember a godly woman who made that claim, but she did not count her failings as sin. If she bossed her husband, for example, that was not sin!

WHAT WOULD COMPLETE SANCTIFICATION LOOK LIKE? 

Michael Pearl of No Greater Joy ministries claims: “We should and can sin no more! ... I have been preaching and living this gospel of sanctification for many years. It is not a theory. It is practical, Scriptural reality” (No Greater Joy, Jan.-Feb. 2005, p. 21).

If this were true, what would it mean in a practical sense? It would mean that not once during this time has Michael sinned in heart or practice, that not once has he disobeyed or ignored even one of God’s laws. It would mean that not once has he been angry with another person without a cause (Mat. 5:22); not once lusted after a woman (Mat. 5:28); not once been conformed to the world (Rom. 12:2); never thought of himself more highly than he should (Rom. 12:3); never dissembled in love (Rom. 12:9); not once failed to be patient in tribulation (Rom. 12:12); not once allowed any corrupt communication to proceed from his mouth (Eph. 4:29); not once spoken any sort of bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, or evil speaking, (Eph. 4:31); not once allowed any malice to dwell in his heart (Eph. 4:31); not once allowed any moral uncleanness in his heart and life (Eph. 5:3); not once had fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but has at all times and in all situations reproved such works (Eph. 5:11); that he has walked circumspectly at every moment and has never failed to redeem the time (Eph. 5:15-16); that he has been at every moment kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving (Eph. 4:32); that he has continually walked in love (Eph. 5:2); that he has been filled with the Spirit at every moment (Eph. 5:18); that he has loved his wife with Christ-like love at all times (Eph. 5:25); that he has never provoked his children to wrath (Eph. 4:4); that he has set his affection on things above in a perfect and continually manner (Col. 3:2); that he has never lied or prevaricated (Col. 3:9); that he has been forbearing and forgiving on every occasion (Col. 3:13); that he has done every single thing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Col. 3:17); that he has never been bitter against his wife (Col. 3:19); that he has continued in prayer at every moment and been thankful in all things (Col. 4:2); that he has continually abstained from all appearance of evil (1 Thess. 5:22); that he has been perfectly holy, as holy as God, in all manner of life and at all times (1 Pet. 1:15-16); that he has perfectly and continually laid aside all malice, all guile, all hypocrisies, all envies, and all evil speakings (1 Pet. 2:1); that he has submitted to every single ordinance of human government at all times (1 Pet. 2:13-14); that on every occasion he has honored all men, loved the brotherhood, feared God, and honored the king (1 Pet. 2:17); that he has given honor to his wife at all times (1 Pet. 3:7); that at every moment he has exercised compassion, love as brethren, pity, and courtesy (1 Pet. 3:8), that he has sanctified the Lord in his heart at all times (1 Pet. 3:15), that he has been sober and watching unto prayer at every moment (1 Pet. 4:7); that he has never neglected the assembly (Heb. 10:25); that he has obeyed pastoral authority perfectly (Heb. 13:17); that he has at all times been peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated (Jam. 3:17); that he has no partiality or hypocrisy (Jam. 3:17); and that he has performed every other commandment and duty in the New Testament Scriptures.

In the case of a Christian woman who is sinlessly and completely sanctified, this would mean that she submits to her husband as unto the Lord on every occasion (Eph. 5:22); that she is in subjection to her husband even if he is not saved (1 Pet. 3:1); that she perfectly and continually exemplifies a meek and quiet spirit (1 Pet. 3:4); that she adorns herself modestly and demonstrates shamefacedness at all times (1 Tim. 2:9); and that she is a silent learner and that she never attempts to usurp the man’s authority in any manner or on any occasion (1 Tim. 2:11-14).

There is only one who has lived sinlessly sanctified in this world, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

THE FALSE DOCTRINE OF A SECOND BLESSING

This teaching takes many different forms, but the crux of the doctrine is that the believer does not receive everything when he is born again and he must seek a second blessing or touch or experience whereby he is lifted above the struggles of the Christian life into a realm of complete and abiding victory.

Some call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit; some say there are two baptisms, the first for regeneration and the second for sanctification. Some have even held that there are three baptisms, the baptism of regeneration, the baptism of sanctification, and a third baptism of fire.

In the early 1980s a Pentecostal preacher claiming to be a prophet came to Nepal from England. He preached in one of the churches and promised the believers that they could experience “fresh baptism” and be lifted above the struggles with sin. He invited the believers to come forward to “receive your Spirit baptism.”

Others present this experience in the form of the “exchanged life” or a “deeper life.” Roy Hession, author of Calvary Road, is one of the popularizers of this doctrine. Consider these excerpts from his autobiography My Calvary Road:

“I recounted my struggles with self and acknowledged the new relationship with Jesus which I had entered by faith. ... In the light of our own recent experience of Christ, we preached a two-fold message: full salvation for the Christian quite as much as an initial salvation for the non-Christian. ... If consecration is thorough and complete, it need not be repeated. ‘Reconsecration’ is the language of piecemeal surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ” (Roy Hession, My Calvary Road).

Thus Hession is saying that it is necessary for the believer to enter into a second experience of Christ, a “full salvation,” and that if one achieves this experience he will be completely surrendered and will not have to surrender again.

ANSWER:

There is no instruction in the New Testament for the believer to seek a “second blessing” or another baptism. The only reference to the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the epistles is in the past tense. See 1 Corinthians 12:13.

If there were some sort of second experience whereby the believer could find complete victory, the New Testament epistles would say so plainly and each epistle would offer that experience as the solution to the believer’s struggles and needs, but no such experience is ever described.

There simply is no one secret or a “second blessing” for a victorious Christian life. Those who teach this have departed from the Bible.

The Christian life is a walk, not a leap or a flight! It is so described 40 times in the New Testament epistles. See Romans 6:4; 8:1, 4; Gal. 5:16, etc.

The genuine Christian life is a matter of walking step by step in God’s will, hour by hour and day by day doing those things that I know that God wants me to do, being sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit: laying aside the sins of the flesh (1 Pet. 2:1), desiring the Word of God (1 Pet. 2:2; 2 Tim. 2:15), presenting my body as a living sacrifice for God’s will (Rom. 12:1), not being conformed to the world (Rom. 12:2; Jam. 4:4; 1 Jn. 2:15-17), exercising my spiritual gifts (Rom. 12:3-5), having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness (Eph. 5:11), being filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), giving thanks always to God (Eph. 5:20), submitting to my husband (Eph. 5:22), loving my wife (Eph. 5:25), obeying my parents (Eph. 6:1-2), being a diligent and honest employee (Eph. 6:5-8), being a just master (Eph. 6:9), confessing my sins (1 Jn. 1:9), fleeing temptations (2 Tim. 2:22), not forsaking the assembly (Heb. 10:25), etc.

This is not as exciting as seeking a “second blessing” and thereafter being able to leap above the struggles with the world, the flesh, and the devil, but it is the true Christian life.

Those who teach these errors, when they are honest, admit that they struggle and that they have to grow! For example, I had a conversation with the aforementioned “prophet” in Nepal, and I asked him if he still struggled with sin. After much “beating around the bush,” he finally admitted that he did have struggles with the flesh. So much for his “higher” or “deeper” experience!

Roy Hession also admits this. In his autobiography My Calvary Road, which we quoted earlier, even though on the one hand he discounts the idea of “piecemeal surrender” to the Lord, he admits that he had lots of ups and downs in his Christian life even after he allegedly learned the “secret” and entered the “deeper” or “crucified life.” He got angry and short-tempered with his wife, even slamming the car door on her hand one day. He had dry preaching meetings and periods of spiritual deadness, a spirit of pride and a lack of repentance toward sin. In other words, in spite of the idea that the believer can enter into a special realm that is beyond the struggles with the flesh, in reality there is no such experience or “secret.”

THE FALSE DOCTRINE OF LICENSE

According to this teaching, the believer is free from “laws, resolutions, and rules.” For example in his book Grace Awakening, Chuck Swindoll teaches that fundamentalists who strive for doctrinal and moral purity are legalists who need to learn grace. He claims that it is legalistic to make prohibitions against immoral movies, sensual dancing, etc. Popular evangelical author Jerry Bridges says the same thing in his book Transforming Grace. He says it is legalistic to expect faithful church attendance, to be concerned about the length of a man’s hair, to set up standards about worldliness. He warns about setting up fences and having “cast iron opinions.”

ANSWER: The believer’s liberty in Christ does not mean that he does not keep rules and commandments. Though the believer is not a servant of the Mosaic law, he is a servant of righteousness (Rom. 6:18) and the servant of God (Rom. 6:22). Compare 1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 5:13.

The apostles taught that though we are saved without works we are also saved unto works (Eph. 2:8-10). By my count, there are 88 specific commandments for believers in the book of Ephesians alone, the book that says salvation is by grace through faith and not of works. 

The believer is not under the Mosaic law, but he is not free from all law. He lives according to a new law.

It is the law of the Spirit (Rom. 8:2), because the Holy Spirit leads and empower us to obey God.

It is the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2), because Christ is our example and our goal (Rom. 8:29).

It is the law of liberty (Jam. 1:25), not because we are free to do as we please but because our condemnation fell upon Christ and we are free from condemnation.

It is the royal law (Jam. 2:8), because the sum of the law is to love my neighbor as myself.

THE FALSE DOCTRINE OF LORDSHIP SALVATION

The term “Lordship salvation” has been given many definitions, but I am using it to describe the teaching that says the true believer will make Christ Lord of every area of his life when he is saved and he will not struggle with sin thereafter. According to this view, those who struggle with sin have not properly yielded to Christ’s Lordship and are not yet saved. Those who teach this usually deny that there is such a thing as a carnal Christian.

ANSWER:

This teaching is contrary to the message of every epistle in the New Testament. If the true believer is one who has no struggle with sin, why did the Apostles spend so much of their time warning believers not to sin?

This teaching is refuted by Paul’s epistle to Corinth. When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth to correct their many sins and errors, he did not tell them that they were lost and needed to be saved. He said plainly that they were in Christ (1 Cor. 1:2-5). At the end of his last epistle, Paul does urge them to examine themselves to make sure they were in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5), but it is obvious from his greeting to them that he did not doubt the salvation of the believers at Corinth in general. And yet he told them that they were carnal and needed to walk in the Spirit (1 Cor. 3:1-3).

Paul described three types of men in 1 Corinthians: the natural man, or the man who is unsaved and does not have the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14); the spiritual man, or the believer who walks in the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:15-16); and the carnal man, or the believer who walks after the flesh (1 Cor. 3:1-3).

Any teaching that claims there is no such thing as a carnal believer has erred from the Word of God.

Further, this teaching of a lordship salvation is contrary to the Bible’s description of the gospel. The gospel is not difficult. Even children can be saved. Jesus said to allow the children to come unto Him (Matt. 19:13-14). In fact, Jesus said that to be saved a person must become like a child (Matt. 18:3). Salvation is not difficult. The Lord Jesus Christ did not suffer so on Calvary so that salvation would be hard to find or achieve. It is the gift of God. Gifts are not difficult to receive! When the Philippian jailer asked Paul what he needed to do to be saved, Paul replied, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31).

Salvation is that simple. Yes, it involves repentance, but repentance is simply turning to Jesus Christ from one’s false gods and the life of sin and self. It is a change in direction that results in a change of life. It is not a complicated thing or a long process that one must undergo.

THE FALSE DOCTRINE THAT THE BELIEVER CAN CONTINUE IN SIN WITH NO CHANGE

According to this doctrine, a sinner can pray a sinner’s prayer and be “saved” even though his life might not change. On a trip to London, England, in the 1990s, I met a Baptist missionary who told me about his evangelistic work on the streets of that big city. He told me that many were being saved. When I asked him how many were attending church, he replied that only a few attended and that it was difficult to get them to come to church after they were saved. When I questioned whether they were actually getting saved, he got upset and replied, “You can’t judge whether or not a person is saved.”

Answer:

Every true believer is born again, and the new birth changes his life. This is what Paul describes in Rom. 6:3-9. While it is true that I cannot judge perfectly whether a person is saved (the apostles thought Judas was saved), nowhere in the New Testament do we see an example of someone who is genuinely saved whose life was not radically changed.

Salvation requires informed faith from the heart, not a mere prayer with the mouth (Rom. 6:17).

Salvation is by grace but it produces the fruit of holiness (Rom. 6:22).

The saved man minds the things of the Spirit; if a man still minds the things of the flesh, he is not saved (Rom. 8:5, 9, 14).

CONCLUSION

1. Have you repented and changed directions? Repentance simply means to turn around, to submit to Jesus Christ as God. “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:3). “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30).

2. Have you trusted Jesus Christ for salvation? As we have seen, salvation is not difficult; it is as simple as receiving a gift. Jesus Christ paid for that gift with His blood and death. He now offers the sinner eternal salvation, and it is the sinner’s part to open his heart to Christ and received the Gift.

3. Have you been deceived by some false teaching in regard to Christian living? Then repent of it!

4. Are you living victoriously in Christ? There is no promise of sinless perfection in the Bible, but there is a promise of victory over sin.

Some suggestions for those who are struggling

a. Fill your mind with the Scripture (1 Pet. 2:2). Read it; study it; memorize it. I suggest that you take the course on “How to Study the Bible,” which is available from Way of Life Literature. The Scripture is powerful and life changing. It has been well said, “The Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible” and “A dusty Bible points to a dirty heart.”

b. Put away anything that is hindering you, tempting you, feeding your carnal nature (2 Tim. 2:2; Rom.7:6-9). Avoid tempting situations. Be especially careful about things such as the Internet; trashy movies, television, and novels; ungodly video games; sensual music; the beach; malls that feature sensual clothing in posters and models; etc.

c. Guard the meditations of the heart; the imagination (Prov. 4:23; Ps. 19:14; Rom. 1:21, 28). Beware of forms of entertainment that bring the mind into ungodly or strange realms, such as strange or ungodly television programs, movies, novels, and video games.

d. Defeat sin one at a time (Rom. 6:12-13; Heb. 12:1). The only way to defeat sin is one sin at a time, one day at a time. When the child of God faces a certain sin and lays it aside one time, he will find that he grows in spiritual strength and can more easily lay it aside the next time he is faced with that temptation.

e. Yield to the Spirit rather than to the flesh (Eph. 5:18). Being filled with the Spirit is a daily matter, not a once for all event. It is the business of yielding to the indwelling Spirit as He prompts and guides. It is a matter of yielding my day to Him as it begins and of yielding my decisions and my activities to Him as I go through the day. It is the opposite of being drunk with wine, which takes control violently and overwhelms the human will. The Spirit of God leads gently and lovingly. To be filled with the Spirit is to yield the reigns of my heart and mind and life to Him hour by hour.

f. Be faithful to the Lord’s house (Acts 2:42; Heb. 10:25). The church is a crucial part of God’s program; it is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). The individual believer is an important member of the body (1 Cor. 12:12) and has gifts for the building up of the work of God through the church (Rom. 12:3-8). The early Christians continued steadfastly in the fellowship and business of the church, and this is the will of God for every believer today. To neglect the house of God is to put oneself into a position of spiritual danger. I do not know how many times I have seen believers backslide when they began to neglect the church. This also reminds us of how important it is to be in a strong Bible-believing, Bible-practicing church.

g. Be busy in the Lord’s service (Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 15:58). God has a part for every believer in His great program for this age, the Great Commission. Finding the will of God is not a matter of waiting and hoping for something in the future; it is a matter of doing something today. As the believer gets involved in the Lord’s service in small and simple ways and continues to be faithful week by week, God leads him in His perfect will. It has well been said, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”

h. Be careful about associations (1 Cor. 15:33; 2 Tim. 2:22). The Bible warns that “evil communications corrupt good manners.” The wrong associations will always weaken good Christian living. Be very careful about your friends and close associates. It was neglect of this in my youth that resulted in great spiritual devastation and many dark years of living far from God.

i. Practice biblical fasting. “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Mat. 17:1). The Lord Jesus taught us that there are some types of demonic strongholds that can be overcome only by prayer with fasting.

j. Practice confession and prayer. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (Jam. 5:16). As a young Christian I was struggling with smoking. I had smoked heavily for about six years and I found it extremely difficult to give it up. I tried and failed many times during the first few months after I was saved. Finally I stood up during a Wednesday prayer meeting and told the brethren about my problem. I confessed my fault and they prayed for me, and I have never smoked again since that day! There is power in confession and prayer.

(This is adapted from our new Advanced Bible Studies Series course on the book of Romans, which was published in January 2004.)